The present invention relates to a door sensor with which a swing door or the like may be equipped and to a door equipped with such a door sensor. In particular, the present invention pertains to a strategy for achieving simplified door sensor constitution.
A typical automatic swing door will conventionally be positioned in a closed position such that the door body closes off the door opening under circumstances where no one is approaching the door. Furthermore, in the event that someone approaches the door from one side, this side representing the near side thereof, the door body can be made to swing toward the side opposite the near side, this opposite side representing the far side thereof, clearing the door opening and allowing passage therethrough.
In order to be able to cause such opening operations to occur, this type of door might be provided with a near-side sensor on the near-side face of the header constituting the upper frame of the door opening. That is, approach of persons from the near side is detected by the near-side sensor, a door drive mechanism is driven in accompaniment to such detection, and the door body is made to swing toward the far side.
Furthermore, in the event that a person is present in the region of the swinging door when the door body is swinging, it will be necessary to stop the swinging and/or decrease the speed of swinging so as to prevent the door body from coming in contact with the person. For this reason, a far-side sensor might be provided at the far-side face of the header in order to permit detection of presence and/or absence of persons at the far side of the door body.
However, in the case of the aforementioned conventional automatic swing door, the door body will pass through the detectable zone of the far-side sensor during swinging of the door body.
For this reason, the far-side sensor being incapable of carrying out detection with respect to those regions of the detectable zone which are in the lee of the door body as this door body passes therethrough, it has sometimes been the case where a person was present in the region of the swinging door but could not be detected despite such fact.
One example which may be cited as means for remedying such a problematic situation is attachment of a far-side sensor to the door body. If this is done, because the far-side sensor moves in accompaniment to the swinging of the door body, the door body will not pass through the detectable zone of the far-side sensor.
However, with such a constitution, the detectable zone of the far-side sensor will change in accompaniment to the swinging of the door body. For this reason, detection will extend to objects (e.g., wall surfaces, railings, etc.) which exist at locations outside of the region of the swinging door body (i.e., at locations which would not come in contact with the door body even if it were to swing therethrough), these being structures or the like at the periphery of the door.
Accordingly, when employing a constitution in which a far-side sensor is attached to the door body in this fashion, it will be necessary to be able to identify the position occupied by the swinging door body and to be able to determine whether an object detected by the far-side sensor is an object intended for detection based on the position of the swinging door body.
However, there has not to date been a proposal in connection with the carrying out of such determination as would permit adequate reliability to be attained with a simple constitution.
For example, a constitution might be contemplated in which the door drive mechanism (drive motor or the like) is provided with an ability to identify the angular displacement position of the door and an output signal therefrom is received by the far-side sensor, determination as to whether an object detected by the far-side sensor is a person or other such target object intended for detection being made in correspondence to the angular displacement position of the door body.
However, with such a constitution, not only would there be a need to add a new capability, i.e., ability to identify angular displacement position, to the door drive mechanism, but there would also be a separate need for wiring to permit the output signal from the door drive mechanism to be sent to the far-side sensor, which would tend to make the constitution more complex and complicate installation procedures. Furthermore, because door drive mechanisms of automatic swing doors which have already been installed will perforce not have been provided with ability to identify the angular displacement position, employment of this constitution therein will, practically speaking, be impossible. That is, such a constitution is not of the type that can be achieved by retrofitting a preexisting automatic swing door.
In order to increase the practicality of the aforementioned constitutions wherein far-side sensors are attached to door bodies, the inventor(s) of the present invention therefore arrived at the present invention upon recognizing that there was a need to be able to determine whether a detected object is a person or other such target object intended for detection in correspondence to the angular displacement position of the door body, but to be able to do this without changing the conventional constitution of the door drive mechanism (i.e., to be able to do this with a door drive mechanism which has not been provided with ability to identify angular displacement position).
Furthermore, the aforementioned problematic situation is not limited to automatic swing doors but may also arise in like fashion with automatic revolving doors, automatic folding doors, upward-pivoting gate doors, and the like. Moreover, with such doors, the aforementioned problematic situation may arise in like fashion when applied to a door sensor functioning as a safety sensor during closing (e.g., in the event that the aforementioned near-side sensor is made to function as a safety sensor, etc.).
The present invention was conceived in light of such issues, it being an object thereof to provide a door sensor and a door equipped with such door sensor(s) which do not tend to produce a more complex constitution and/or more complicated installation procedures in the context of a constitution wherein far-side sensor(s) or other such sensor(s) which might be referred to as safety sensor(s) is or are attached to door body or bodies.